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Rain stalls NZ 1st Test edge over England

Daniel Gilhooly

Rain conspired against New Zealand's bid for victory in the first cricket Test against England as most of the final session was wiped out on Friday's third day in Dunedin.

Just seven overs were possible after tea before rain forced the players off and gloomy light ensured the hosts didn't get a chance to build on their first innings of 7-402. Play was called off at 5.15pm local time.

It puts New Zealand 235 runs ahead with two days remaining but lamenting the loss of 32 overs which would have been valuable in a Test already robbed of the entire first day by wet weather.

Captain Brendon McCullum was at the crease on 44 and Bruce Martin on 17. But the day belonged to opener Hamish Rutherford, whose freewheeling 171 bettered England's first innings total of 167 and was the seventh-highest Test score by any debut player.

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The 23-year-old marvelled at how far he had come in the space of a year since being dropped by his domestic side.

"I wasn't even playing for Otago so to debut like I have is very special, especially with the home crowd," he said.

"It means the theories, processes, techniques etc that I've used over the last couple of years are good enough to make it in international cricket. I suppose that's the big outcome out of this innings."

The 23-year-old was the ninth Black Caps' debut centurion and his score is eclipsed only by Mathew Sinclair's 214 against the West Indies in Wellington 14 years ago.

"The red ball is where I feel more comfortable. I obviously haven't played as much one-day cricket as you can see by my stats. They're not good reading. I feel comfortable with the red ball."

After resuming at 0-133, Peter Fulton fell for 55 - ending a 158-run opening stand which was New Zealand's best for nine years. Kane Williamson departed for 24 to leave New Zealand on 2-255 at lunch.

Rutherford was the first of five Black Caps' dismissals in the second session, spooning James Anderson to mid-wicket as the tourists looked sharper with the second new ball on a dull University Oval pitch.

Ross Taylor reached 31, Doug Brownlie 27 and Tim Southee 25 in handy knocks, scored with enough speed to suggest the hosts were considering a late declaration on Friday.

Anderson was the pick of the England bowlers, taking 4-108 off 29 overs.

"I thought we bowled better today, we had chances go down and nicks went through the slips so we could have had more rewards for how we bowled," Anderson said.

"We tried to focus on staying patient because it can be difficult as a bowling group when you are behind the eight ball as we are. You try to chase it a bit too much."